Battle for the Punchbowl: The U. S. 1st Marine Division 1951 Fall Offensive of the Korean War

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from their blind side. NKPA fled their holes and ran northwest to hole up in reverse-slope bunkers and again kill Marines. The Marine attack succeeded with this flankattack achieving complete surprise. Fox-2's (Fox Company, Second Platoon) hadachieved the summit after only thirty-six minutes (for Fox Company's 2nd Platoon -- itwas many hours for the others) of close quarters combat with grenades, rifles, andmachine guns. The fighting was close and fierce, going to bayonets, clubbed rifles,rocks, fists, and anything else at hand. "The platoon quickly.., overcame enemyresistance and occupied the position without excessive losses." In this platoon's sectorat least, the enemy seemed to have run out of grenades.85One last bunker remained in Fox-2's area. It was "sizeable" and in the saddlebetween two knobs atop the hill. In it a Maxim-heavy shot scathing fire down the lengthof the ridgeline. It took a 3.5 inch bazooka four rounds to neutralize the position. (Therocket-team fired from 250 yards off and shook up the enemy within enough that otherMarines could demolish it.) The most effective weapon, again, the 5th Marinesdiscovered, for taking out enemy MGs was counter-fire from its own light MGs. "It wasobserved that [at least] three machine guns on the hill had been pierced and probablydestroyed by .30 caliber bullets." Flamethrowers might have worked better, but couldnot be used that day because of "high head winds."86The slopes were strewn with dead enemy, but not all were really dead. "Oneseemingly dead North Korean Soldier lay crumpled beside a bunker, his rifle broken, hispockets turned inside out, for a long period of time." (Men from the S-2 section usuallycame and searched the bodies right away to glean any documents for intelligence